Sun and viewfinders.
 

Well, you know those warnings in the manuals about protecting the viewfinder object lens from the sun?

I had my DSR-300 out on a shoot and in the morning sun. All of a sudden we smelled hot plastic and what seemed to be burning electronics. Turn off the camera, go to a backup PD150.

Next day, same thing. OK, it really is broken.

Send the viewfinder in to Sony expecting that the bill will be arojund $500 to replace the electronics and clean or replace the first-surface mirror.

Nope. $219 to clean up the smoke deposits on the optics and a note to not allow the sun to enter the eyepiece of the viewfinder.

I gotta tell you the time between placing the viewfinder in the sun and smelling and observing smoke inside wasn't very long. And the sun wasn't very 'strong.'

I'm glad the sun wasn't impinging directly on the LCD in the PD150!

Yep. I religiously turn the viewfinder on my camera towards the ground whenever I am not looking through it.

same here, I always tilt mine down...bit less of a problem with the sun in the UK compared to Cali though.

Hehe! I wouldn't bank on it. The UK gets a lot more sun than you guys think. Someone I know last year burnt out their DVX100 viewfinder :)

im from the UK and I know thats a lie

Im looking out of my window now watching rain hammering down!

Was he holding a magnifying glass between the sun and his viewfinder?

Nope lol! That's what you get for living in Wales ;-)

Quite sunny here in Malvern. ;-))

Was the lense of the viewfinder acting to focus the sunlight?